


An Obligation

by protectmikasamuels2017



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Rhodey, BAMF Tony Stark, Civil War Team Iron Man, Female Tony Stark, Gen, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, give us our tag already, seriously aooo, the rest are redeemable, they're actually listening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-16 14:09:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20835695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectmikasamuels2017/pseuds/protectmikasamuels2017
Summary: Lately it's been one mess after another but when Steve has the audacity to claim that he knows better than 117 countries Toni snaps and finally gives him the verbal smackdown that's been a long time coming.Team Iron Man. Don't like, don't read





	An Obligation

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, wow, when I first started writing this I had no idea that it would spawn into this, over 4000 words written in the space of 24 hours. I didn’t intend for it to be this long, but I have a lot of anger at Steve here and at his stupid excuses for the data dump, Lagos and the Accords and it all just bled through here. 
> 
> This fic is very firmly Team Iron Man, so don’t like don’t read. There isn’t really a lot of character bashing here except on Steve as the plot focuses on Toni calling Steve out on his stupid decisions. Natasha, Sam and Wanda are redeemable here as they’re actually using their heads.
> 
> I might add another chapter later, describing what happens post-Civil War here. More notes are at the bottom.

“This document just shifts the blame” Steve announced confidently, throwing the Accords aside after he spent ten minutes reading the first three pages and in a tone that says they would now just be thrown aside and forgotten about because he thought so. 

“Shifts the blame?” Toni asked, not bothering to hide the annoyance in her voice. “Steve despite what its name might suggest, the Sokovia Accords have been in the works since 2012 after New York. They gained speed after what you did in D.C. What happened in Sokovia was just another reason why they’re so important and now Lagos is the tipping point. This document was always going to come up; what happened in Lagos just accelerated everything.”

And in order to shift the blame, you actually have to accept some first.

At the mention of Lagos Maximoff flinched, drawing in on herself with a miserable expression on her face. She was taking this a lot harder then Toni had expected she would considering she hadn’t seemed to care much about what she had done to Johannesburg or Seoul. Looks like she was finally acknowledging the damage she could cause.

“And it doesn’t shift the blame” Rhodey continued which Toni was incredibly grateful for. “It forces us to take responsibility for our own actions. When something goes wrong on a mission, an independent panel reviews what went wrong and why. It’s just like what would happen in the Air Force or any other branch of military. Or in the police, medical field, basically any profession that protects people.”

“We can’t do that ourselves” Toni added, “we’re too close to the situation. We need an independent third party.”

“And who are these people?” Sam asked suspiciously.

“A United Nations panel” Toni said. “I know that you had a bad experience with Hydra being Shield, but the U.N. is their polar opposite. They’re all about transparency, not secrecy to start with and if they think that it’s a situation we shouldn’t get involved in, then they’re probably right. You fucked everything up in Lagos.”

“We had to stop Crossbones” Steve argued with that petulant frown on his face.

“It was not your job to stop Crossbones” Rhodey snapped. “You don’t have the jurisdiction or authority too. Do you know what you actually did? You fucked up a mission that was two years in the running, so you have Interpol pretty pissed off with you guys too.”

“Wait what?” Sam asked as Natasha looked up curiously.

“Brock Rumlow” Toni took over, “had been working for Interpol for the past two years as a double agent against Hydra. He was supplying them with information about their bases, missions, threats, anything and everything. So Interpol were aware of the theft in advance and were working with the Nigerian authorities. There was a plan in place to ambush them at the border, so they could be arrested with minimal casualties. They were hoping that it would lead to a massive bust on Hydra bases. Instead, you morons interfered when it wasn’t your place too. Now all they have to show for that hard work is millions of property damage in Nigeria, twenty-six dead, eleven of whom were Wakandan relief workers and fifty-three injured. So great job.”

There was dead silence for a moment as the news sunk in. Rhodey and Vision who had already known about this, just looked grim. Natasha had a look of guilt on her face but Toni couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not. Sam looked stricken as it seemed like his brain might finally be working and Wanda looked like she was just seconds away from bursting into tears. Steve though-

“It’s the Avengers job to fight Hydra” he declared, none of what she had just said seemed to have sunk in and Toni wanted to rip her hair out. “More would have died if we weren’t there.”

_Oh Lord give me strength._

“No they wouldn’t!” Toni blew up, causing Sam and Wanda to scramble away from her in alarm. Steve just looked shocked. “Pull your head out of your ass Rogers and start listening to the God's honest truth! It was never Hydra’s plan to detonate that bomb there! That happened as a result of you sticking your nose in where it didn’t belong! Had you not been there the arrest would have gone off without a hitch and none of us would be in this situation!”

“And it is not” she continued in a calmer voice, “the Avengers job to fight Hydra. The Avengers were formed to take care of the threats that the usual task forces can’t handle. New York? That was an Avengers job. Sokovia? Avengers job. Hydra is not an Avengers job.”

“You came hunting Hydra bases with us last year” Natasha pointed out and Toni turned to look her way.

“Because Hydra had Loki’s sceptre,” she replied. “An alien artefact of immense power that can mind control its victims? Wielded by an alien god who attempted to take over the world and caused a lot of death and damage? In the hands of an organisation that tried to destroy the world? Retrieving it was an Avengers job. If there was enhanced Hydra members or just enhanced terrorists in general that the regular authorities couldn’t handle, then yes, catching them is under our jurisdiction too. But Hydra are mostly just made up of regular human beings. It’s not our job to handle them, it’s Interpols and the relevant countries anti-terrorism organisations.”

“We had to stop Hydra” Steve repeated, like a broken record.

“Like you stopped them in D.C.?” Toni challenged. “Wasn’t that your whole reasoning for dumping every single bit of Shield’s information up online? You didn’t do a very good job of it though did you? After all, Hydra are still pretty active two years later. Instead all you did achieve from that was getting hundreds of innocent Shield workers and their families killed.”

Steve was grinding his teeth so hard that Toni could actually hear it from the other side of the table. Natasha was hard to read but Sam on the other hand - 

“Wait what do you mean all of Shield’s information?” he asked confused.

_Oh, come on._

Disbelievingly Toni turned to Sam as Rhodey spoke up. “Back in 2014 during the data dump it wasn’t just all the Hydra files that Steve and Natasha dumped on the internet. It was everything Shield had including their own files. As a result lots of innocent Shield agents were killed and tortured. Their families too. There were also dozens of people under Shield’s protection that were killed as well because their safe houses were revealed.”

Sam looked horrified as he sunk down into his seat muttering to himself, but Toni wasn’t impressed. How was he only learning this now? Still maybe this was the wake-up call he needed.

And as for Natasha . . .

“Speaking of families being killed in that very idiotic move” she said staring straight at Natasha, so the redhead knew that she was next on the shit list. “Do you know how close you were to getting the Barton's killed during all of that? Ten minutes.” “What?” Natasha questioned, trying to act aloof but she knew that the spy was giving her full attention.

“Clint was Shield. Shield had records of his family and where he lived” Toni said curtly getting to the point. “I found the information online during the data dump but it had already been downloaded several times but the time I came across it. Someone like Clint would have made a lot of enemies during his career. I didn’t have the resources available to go get them out so I forwarded it to the X-Men who were helping with the data dump. They were able to send someone out. But from the information I got from the security cameras nearby, if they had taken another ten minutes to get there then Clint wouldn’t have a wife or children anymore. And it would have been your fault. Yours and Steves.”

Seriously, thank God for Wolverine and Angel, otherwise the body count from that disaster would have been up by three.

And just in case she didn’t believe her, Toni conjured up the data from that up on a holographic screen and pushed it towards Natasha. The spy was trying to act like she didn’t care but the pale face and minute finger trembling told her all she needed to know. Clearly she didn’t think that plan through.

“Of course, the Barton's had a very lucky escape that day. Many other families weren’t so lucky” Toni said, having to close her eyes as she fought against the memories from those days. Of the times she arrived too late to save them. 

“When somebody dies on your watch, you don’t give up” Steve argued. “We’re not perfect but the safest hands are still our own. If we sign this we’re giving up our right to choose and then maybe nobody gets saved next time. The people here have agendas and agendas change.”

The room was dead silent for a moment as Steve's message sunk in. He started to get a smug look in his eyes thinking that he had won the argument.

“Wow” Toni said finally, “ok, I don’t know what bit of that moronic statement to address first. You never really had a brain did you Rogers, otherwise there would have been something for the serum to enhance in there.”

Steve started to sputter indignantly, but Toni was done caring about him. Steve might be a lost cause but the others were listening.

“Now I’m going to walk you through what is wrong with that whole statement” she began quietly with a hint of a threat in her voice. 

“You’re right about not giving up and unfortunately we can’t save everyone, it’s not always possible. But it’s a bit hypocritical of you to say something like that considering last year you refused to consider any plan that resulted in Sokovian casualties during the final battle with Ultron. What did you say? Oh yeah: _‘I’m not leaving a single civilian on this rock.’”_

Not a sound was heard from anyone else as Toni and Steve didn’t break eye contact from each other.

“So tell me Steve” she asked softly, “just what makes the lives of the people lost in Lagos so expendable when they weren’t in Sokovia? Do you not care? Come on what’s your reasoning?”

She didn’t bother to wait for Steve’s weak justifications and instead ploughed on.

“And ‘the safest hands are still our own’? Your hands aren’t what’s safe. You’re endangering people by involving yourself in situations that don’t need you. Just like in Lagos. You don’t have the right to decide that you know better than everyone else. That you know better than the representatives of 117 countries who are listening to the people they represent, who are saying that they want protections against you? Who died and made you God?!”

There was now an obvious vein on Steve’s forehead. Natasha looked like she was in agreement with what Toni was saying, Wilson looked guilty, while Wanda looked like she was thinking very seriously over what was being said.

“And everyone has an agenda, you moron. So does every business and organisation. That’s not a valid argument at all. The definition of an agenda is ‘the intentions or motivations for doing anything’. The Avengers agenda is to protect the planet. The U.N.’s agenda is to maintain international peace and security. Wanda had an agenda to kill me not even a year ago didn’t she?”

“Wanda’s just a kid!” Steve blurted out, “she doesn’t know any better!”

Toni couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that and she heard Rhodey scoff beside her. What did catch her eye though was the tiniest clench of Wanda’s jaw at Steve’s statement. Interesting, did Steve’s countless proclamations about her youth frustrate the Sokovian just as much as they did Toni?

“She’s twenty-six Rogers!” Rhodey butted in, “an adult. I’m actually annoyed for her that you keep referring to her as a child.”

Before Rhodey could say anything else though Steve’s phone chimed with a message that apparently was much more important that the future of the Avengers.

“Captain we are not done here” Vision spoke up for the first time in a while just as Steve reached the door.

“Yes we are” Steve countered firmly. “We can’t sign these.”

And then he left the room without another word confident that they were just going to be good little dogs and follow his lead.

Sighing, Rhodey rubbed a hand across his face and turned to face her fully. “I think at this point that Rogers is a lost cause. He’s not listening.”

“If he doesn’t sign then he’s out of the Avengers” Toni shrugged, before glancing up at everyone else. “That goes for all of you. If you don’t want to sign then don’t, I can’t force you to, but you can’t be an Avenger if you don’t sign that’s the rule.” 

“C-Can you do that?” Wilson asked surprised while Wanda stared at her wide-eyed and Natasha watched her carefully.

“Regardless of what Steve likes to think” Toni snorted, “he does not own the Avengers. I do, I bought the name and the rights to it back in 2014. I own the brand, I own this compound, the quinjets, your weapons, his shield - “

“His shield?” Natasha interrupted, while Sam and Wanda looked like she had grown three heads.

“Yeah” Toni nodded. “Back in the war my old man only lent the shield to Steve so he had a good weapon to present himself to the public as Captain America with and to protect himself when hunting down Hydra. He had papers proving both his ownership of it and that he only lent it to Rogers for the duration of the war. But then Rogers crashed the plane and went into the ice. When my dad died, his will stated that if the shield was ever found then it was mine, just like the rest of his stuff.”

“Does Steve know?” Sam asked.

“No idea” Toni shook her head. “But based on today's meeting, I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought that my dad would just willingly give him a billion dollar shield. But if he doesn’t sign the Accords then I’m taking my property back. I’m not arming him. He could slice people in half throwing that thing at them.” 

“The shield’s worth _how_ much?” Wanda asked.

“It’s made of vibranium” Rhodey explained, “the rarest and therefore most expensive metal on earth. That shield is worth 70 billion dollars, give or take a few billion.”

There was a stunned silence for a few moments as that sunk into them.

“Look guys” Toni sighed as she tried to steer the conversation back to its original topic. “I know that the Accords aren’t perfect, but they can be changed. It is so easy to add amendments. This version right here” she said pointing to the discarded volume on the table. “Is far from the absolute final version. But signing it shows the world that we’ll listen to them, that we are listening to them. I can use my political power to help speed up the process and try and fix this mess but I can’t do it alone. Come on please, work with me here.”

In the quiet that followed Toni carefully observed the three undeciders. Natasha was as hard to read as always but she seemed to be listening while Wanda looked to be thinking hard. Wilson gave a loud sigh and leaned back into his chair, but his body language indicated willingness.

“I’m on board.” 

Toni couldn’t help but stare at Natasha in surprise and she wasn’t the only one.

“Really?” Rhodey challenged. “Weren’t you the woman who told the Senate to kiss her ass two years back?”

She smiled at him. “If I remember correctly, Toni did the exact same thing.”

“Those are two very different scenarios” Toni pointed out.

“Maybe” Natasha shrugged, “but we both told the government in varying degrees of civility ‘fuck you’ and we both got away with it.”

“Point taken” Toni conceded.

“If we have one hand on the wheel we can still steer” Natasha explained to the other two on-the-fenchers. “I’m just reading the terrain here. We’ve made some very public mistakes, we need to earn their trust back.”

Sam groaned and leaned forward in his chair, looking Toni right in the eye. “I’m listening and I understand, I really do, but Ross -”

“Ross didn’t write the Accords” Toni interrupted, “Ross had no part in writing them. He’s not even the U.S.’s representative for the U.N. This is just him sticking his nose in and mudding the waters because he hates enhanced. Undoubtedly he’s going to try and make this more difficult for us, but the Accords will help shield us.”

Sam nodded and seemed much less concerned now, while Wanda still had a frown on her face. Toni then took a drink of water while she waited for the Sokovian to say what was on her mind.

After about a minute, she finally decided to speak up, her voice small and hesitant. “You, you said that the Accords were always going to come up?”

“Yeah” Toni nodded. “Ross was right on one thing. We are more or less vigilantes at this point. The only reason we weren’t taken to task on it earlier was because we stopped the world from getting annihilated twice and usually we’re liaising with local governments and authorities of the places we’re heading too.”

Of course to do that, you kinda had to know that they were heading out on a mission first.

“But we are a group of superheroes running around unchecked and under no jurisdiction, causing massive destruction and loss of life despite our good intentions. That couldn’t go on. This really was in the works for years, you can check it out on the U.N.’s website.”

Wanda frowned thoughtfully, but Toni could see the question in her eyes.

“To give a really quick summary of the Accords they do two things” she began. “One they regulate the actions of the Avengers and groups like us. The X-Men or the Fantastic Four are the main ones who will be affected by this. It mainly applies when we’re operating outside the borders of our own country. Rules and guidelines. Accountability and responsibility. It also contains things about internally running the Avengers such as when it’s appropriate to bench a teammate. One particular rule is that a benched teammate is only allowed to return to the field after a panel deem them medically and psychologically able to.”

Toni squashed down the sigh of relief that formed as everyone in the room nodded, listening intently to what she had to say. Rogers may be a lost cause but the rest of the team was still salvageable.

“The second bit” she continued focusing on Maximoff in particular. “Is that it establishes mutants and enhanced people as human beings and that they are under the protection of the law and have the same rights as everyone else as declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They’ve been trying to get that on the books for years now. Because it isn’t there currently means that many mutants have often been discriminated against, murdered or illegally incarcerated and experimented on because some consider them less than human.”

Maximoff swallowed at that and looked down at her hands. Sam looked horrified and Romanoff was interested.

“And I’ve got two stories to share about that” Rhodey stated surprising Toni, but after exchanging a look with him she knew what he was talking about. “You guys probably wouldn’t know them, they’re kept secret by the brass. It would backlash horribly on them if the media got wind of them.”

“A few years back,” he began, “I got a phone call from an old childhood friend of mine named Richard. He’s a sergeant in the army right now. Well, he phoned looking for my help. One of the men under his command was arrested under the authority of William Stryker for charges he didn’t do. Reason he was actually arrested? He was a mutant and Stryker is very mutant-phobic. He made up the charges so he can get the boy transferred under his own command. And what would have happened to him there, is exactly what would happen to Bruce if Ross got his hands on him.”

Rhodey paused for a moment, to make sure that everyone was following, before he continued.

“But unluckily for Stryker” he said laced with sarcasm, “is that Richard isn’t a moron. He knew exactly what was actually going on. So he phoned me up looking for help. And I got Toni involved. And between the three of us and I’m pretty sure another mutant was involved but I can’t prove it, we managed to get the kid off the hook and away from Stryker.”

“The second one is Captain Marvel.”

“Sam told us about her” Natasha interrupted. “I think she knew Fury and Coulson too, I heard them mention her once.”

“Yeah they did know her” Rhodey agreed. “What you probably don’t know is that when she first got her powers the military wanted to replicate it. Basically make her a lab rat for the rest of her life. Once again Toni and I intervened and she’s now off-planet helping to protect Earth.”

“Both of those stories ended happily enough” Toni added, “but I can promise you there’s many more that don’t. Both in America and everywhere else. Because powered individuals are seen by some as less than human. The Accords prevent that from happening. How it’ll be accepted in the U.S. is still up in the air, but it’ll stop automatic registration of mutants and detainment centres from being allowed, which is what Ross and other like minded individuals are pushing for instead.”

Natasha was once again hard to read, but Toni knew that she was already on board. Wanda looked scared and Sam looked sick.

“You don’t have to sign them, if you don’t want too” Vision reminded them gently. “If you don’t there is always retirement. Ms Stark and Colonel Rhodes are simply stating why this version is what is the best. It can be amended and it already declares mutants as humans and has a fair policy for governing the Avengers and other similar organisations. But you can’t reject them and then go vigilante. Otherwise the consequences for both yourselves and those with powers will be much more severe.”

“Yeah, ok” Sam said finally, “I see why they’re needed. I’ll sign. I’m still the Falcon after all, I still want to protect the world. And because of that I have an obligation to listen to what the people want.”

“I will too” Wanda nodded after sharing a look with Vision.

A massive weight was lifted off of Toni’s chest at those words, but it did remind her of another pressing issue.

“There’s still an investigation going on into Lagos” Toni informed Wanda, “so if I were you, I wouldn’t leave the Compound, until a week or two after its finished to give the public a chance to calm down. People are angry and you’re an easy target.”

“I was only trying to help” Wanda answered looking very upset.

“I know that” Toni agreed. “But people still died and the world wants answers. Steve may say that the lives lost don’t matter in the end, but they do to their loved ones. All the people that died there were someone else’s Clint, someone else’s Riley, someone else’s Pietro, someone else’s _Bucky_.”

The rest of the room flinched back at the words but they knew that she was right. And Toni knew damn well that if Steve’s precious Bucky Barnes had been injured or killed because something went wrong on a mission she was on, then he’d be blaming her for the rest of his life. But because none of those victims were Bucky Barnes then he didn't care about their deaths.

“Basically what I expect to happen as a result of the investigation is that you’ll be put on probation. You won’t be allowed back on missions until you have proper control over your powers. But right now people are angry over what happened and your visa is on thin ice. If you get into a fight with someone here, your visa will be revoked. You’re not an American citizen, the government doesn’t have an obligation to help you and all it will take is one confrontation with an angry civilian and they’ll deport you.”

“I understand” Wanda said quietly after a moment of silence, “I’ll stay here until the public has calmed down.” She closed in on herself as she said it, causing Vision to place a comforting hand on her shoulder and she returned the gesture with a smile.

“So we’re all in agreement on signing?” Rhodey asked, gaining a round of ‘yeses’ and nods.

“Wait what about Steve?” Sam asked glancing towards the door where Steve had left.

“Steve can make his own decisions” Toni said firmly. “He’s an adult but I can’t make him sign the Accords nor can I make him listen to reason. If he rejects them, then he can retire, but I’m not funding him or his little missions without him signing the Accords. And I’d be taking the shield back too. It’s time for him to start living in the real world. The Accords won’t stop existing just because he doesn’t like them.”

It was silent for a moment but this time Toni knew that the others were on board. The Accords weren’t perfect and there was a lot of work to be done on them, but they could be changed. It was time to bring the Avengers into a new era.

“Ok people” Toni said clapping her hands, causing several holographic screens of the Accords to appear in front of everyone. “Friday phone Murdock and Nelson, we’re going to need their help making our way through all of this. The signing is in three days and I think it’s in our best interests if we go to Vienna knowing as much about the Accords as possible and what amendments we want to add. Oh, Friday can you also order in some pizza and donuts too, I think we’re going to need them. And whose for coffee, it’s going to be a long day.” 

**Author's Note:**

> In the films Rumlow is definitely a villain, but Team Cap had no right to go barging into the situation in Lagos and putting an entire market full of people at risk. They weren’t even there for Rumlow and because they weren’t working with the authorities people got injured and killed. But the idea that Rumlow was actually working with the authorities and was a double agent helping to bring down Hydra was too good not to mention. The inspiration actually came to me after reading ‘All That’s Best Of Dark And Bright’ By kaaterinapetrova . I just love their characterisation of Rumlow, he’s not a double agent there, but the way she wrote him inspired it.
> 
> I just don’t know why the Avengers were hunting Hydra like that in Age of Ultron as there are anti-terrorism organisations like Interpol who job is to do exactly that and the only reasonable explanation I have for it was that they were trying to retrieve Loki’s sceptor from them.
> 
> In theory the data dump seems sensible but once you start using your brain it’s actually a horrific idea. So many innocent people were killed because of it. And despite all that Hydra was still kicking two years later while Shield was ‘gone’ and many innocent people were killed.
> 
> I also find it difficult to believe that something about Clint’s family wasn’t in the data dump. Even if they were mostly off the books there would have been a record or trail somewhere. They were very lucky that they weren’t targeted, I don’t think that Clint would ever have forgiven Natasha or Steve if they had been injured or killed. Although he did abandon them in Civil War, so-
> 
> Steve’s hypocrisy between Lagos and Sokovia really pisses me off. When Tony says that there isn’t any possible way to save everyone in Novi Grad he disagrees. When Tony says that Lagos was unavoidable, he says more would have died if they hadn’t been there. I planned to do a bit more on it, but I had already let myself get carried away here so maybe in another oneshot.
> 
> The worth and ownership of the shield was inspired by ‘The Days Of Reckoning Are Upon Us’ by AnaFandom. I adore their work and used it here. I can’t remember the segment it was from though.
> 
> ‘Mutantkind’ by TheSovereigntyofReality was another big inspiration for the Accords giving the mutants rights. I would recommend reading it, the majority of the fic is in Logan’s pov and it’s excellent.
> 
> I know that the bit about Captain Marvel almost becoming a lab rat doesn’t fit into the films canon, it’s actually based off ‘Ramblings’ by TheSovereigntyofReality as well where Carol is a recurring character. I just wanted to show a situation where something like that could very easily happen and Carol had the most plausible circumstances for it. I also figured that Team Cap never really pay attention to the consequences unless it impacts them so Carol, someone Sam might have heard of in the Air Force, and Natasha who Fury or Coulson might have mentioned seemed the best fit.


End file.
